


Modern TDP AU offshoot

by genericfanatic



Series: Dragon Prince AU drabbles [4]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Toxic Relationship, unrequited pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-10-02 00:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20451917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genericfanatic/pseuds/genericfanatic
Summary: This is a bonus chapter to my Modern TDP aus oneshot collection.It is semi-canonical to the series, but can easily be discounted depending on your opinion of Viren shipping.Viren and Harrow's law firm has just been dissolved as well as their friendship, so Viren looks for a good drink and maybe something more from his new political advisor.





	Modern TDP AU offshoot

**Author's Note:**

> So. I don't super ship any of these pairings in the show itself. But I like to think of several of them as like "in another life" kinda deals.
> 
> And well. This is another life, cause it's an AU. So here we are.

“How long have you been divorced?” Aaravos asked, lounging in his office chair. His business office chair, not the scrubby thing that sat at the high school. His charity work, he called it.

Viren clenched his teeth, more on instinct than anything. It used to be any memory of his wife would send a solid dart of pain straight through him, ripping him apart. Now it was just the memory of pain, and that sometimes hurt more. “10….no, 11 years now,” he said. Just before Ezran was born, he remembered. 

Aaravos hummed, sipping his drink. He kept the good stuff here, and that’s what Viren was here for. The memory of his wife leaving him was dulled, but of his most recent break….that was far more fresh. 

Katolis and Dark, attorneys at law, was dead. He and Harrow had been friends for many years, longer than both their marriages, longer than their careers. Ever since law school. And it was all gone now. 

He didn’t want to go home. He COULDN’T go home, his house was right next to Harrow’s. His children were practically adults, they could handle themselves one night, so he called Aaravos, who had come and picked him up. 

“Have you dated anyone since?” Aaravos asked. Viren jerked his head up. He was lost in thoughts, he nearly forgot Aaravos’ original question. 

He shook his head, swallowing back his drink. “No, no. No time. No need to. I’ve got my kids and...and Harrow was always around to help. When they were small.” 

Aaravos mouth ticked up. “Why not you and Harrow?” he asked. Viren was too thrown by the question, glaring at Aaravos. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

He kept his face straight, but he could feel the muscle jumping in his jaw. He hadn’t thought the words out, not for a long time. In law school he thought them every day, but that wasn’t the era to come out unless he was sure, and Harrow had shown no signs of returning his feelings. So he got married to someone else. He liked to think he was in love with her, at one time, but it was hard to see through the years of pain. And then Sarai was dead, and it was his fault, and they couldn’t exactly move on that anymore. At some point though, and he wished it had been after Harrow was single again, he thought the words once more. He was in love with him.

He hadn’t told a soul, and he wasn’t about to start now, so he just sneered at Aaravos. “You don’t know anything about me.” he downed his glass of wine.

Aaravos chuckled in that light way he did, where it was less of a chuckle and more...like a deep rumbling. It wasn’t the first time Viren had thought of Aaravos as a beast. 

Aaravos got up from his desk with the bottle, coming over to the couch to fill up his drink. Once it was filled, Aaravos sat beside him. “I know everything about you.”

Viren snorted. “You barely know me.”

Aaravos smiled at him, pouring his own drink and swirling it, instead of chugging like Viren. “I know everything about everyone,” he said, “Everyone important.”

Viren glared at him over his wine glass, trying to get his own read on him. He was usually the one who could, the one who would sit back and read while Harrow would have the big emotions. But Aaravos he couldn’t read for the life of him. “Awfully full of yourself, aren’t you?”

Aaravos gave a small shrug. How he made a shrug look dignified, Viren couldn’t figure out. Everything about Aaravos was dignified, small, almost delicate. It drove Viren nuts. “One of my many faults. But I’m only human, I suppose.”

Viren rolled his eyes. Whatever Viren was, it didn’t seem human. “I know Harrow was only ever going to hold you back.” Aaravos continued, his low voice rumbling in Viren’s ears, “But you couldn’t let go of him, even if he could never feel the same for you.”

Viren turned away from him. It wasn’t anything he didn’t know, but still. “Fuck you.”

“I intend to,” he said, and Viren felt how close he was, his deep voice echoing. “But I want to make sure you’re ready. Ready to really move on from the past that wasn’t working, to realize your full potential.”

Viren clenched his jaw, staring into middle distance. He downed this glass of wine too, knowing full well where this evening was tumbling towards. Maybe he knew it when he arrived, or even as far back as when he called. It didn’t matter, he was here now. 

Aaravos plucked his glass from his hand, putting it on the coffee table along with his own. “I don’t love you,” Viren said, bluntly.

“Nor I you,” Aaravos said, “That’s not what this is about.”

Aaravos was shifting closer to him. Viren didn’t move, but he could feel himself shaking. “You should know I haven’t...I mean, I’ve never--”

“Been with a man?” Aaravos asked. Viren bowed his head, staring at his hands. “I told you, I know everything about you,” he said, grabbing the back of his head, and kissed him. 

It had been over 11 years since Viren had been kissed, and even then it had been few and far between a lot before then. He had convinced himself he didn’t care about this anymore. He didn’t need it anymore. And maybe that was true. 

But it was still so fucking nice. And right now all he needed was something a little nice to forget.


End file.
